Hilachas is the Spanish word for those little loose threads that fall all over the floor and sewing area as you finish sewing and snip the tail end of the thread off the sewn area. So does this blog entail the odds and ends of topics of interest, leaving more loose threads to ponder...

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Encouraging words of the day:

So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. ~ Deuteronomy 31:6, NLT

On our way back to El Paso tomorrow so I'm posting my "One-Flower Wednesday" today. Good-byes are always sad. It seems like I'm always saying "good-by" to someone I love. We'll be back to Fresno in October so that helps with the "good-by" since it's only for a short time. But then I'll see my parents in early July and have to tell them "good-by" and then I see both of my sons later in July and there will be more "good-byes." Somehwhere I heard the saying, "Don't be sad because it's over but be glad because it happened." I guess I need to adopt that motto :(

Back to "One-Flower Wednesday." Here are a couple more little-bitty 1/2 inch flowers I sewed together. I'm getting the feeling that this will be a small "whatever" that I make out of these because they are harder to sew, being so small.Check out the page that Karen has set up for us at "Journey of a Quilter" to see more flowers.

Giveaways:"RocknQuilts" is giving away part of the loot she won from Quilty Magazine. - ends July 4th"Suebee's World" is sponsoring a traveling stash giveaway. - ends June 28th.

That is all

Monday, June 25, 2012

Encouraging words of the day:new for next post: This is my command, be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. ~ Joshua 1:9, NLT

We're having a wonderful time in Fresno with our daughter and family but I need to get home because, since, because I'm away from my sewing machine, I can't sew so I buy more fabric. Not only that, I've ordered more fabric which will be in the mail box when I get home. Just look at this:I think I already said in a previous post that I'm going to need to join that group which does a stash report each week to show that I'm actually going to do something with this fabric besides add it to my stash.

I have been doing some hand-sewing on my optical illusion hexies. This is what I have so far.

It's actually looking pretty good but it has been a nightmare to sew together. I've done a lot of un-sewing each time I discover I've sewed the wrong hexies together. I lay them out, pick them up, and sew them to the wrong side. Again! It amazes me that I can do the wrong thing over and over.

Oh, I received an email from Bobbie StClair who blogs at "From This to That" saying I won the "Traveling Stash" so maybe that box will be in El Paso when I arrive. Probably not that fast though but I'll let you know as soon as I get it. I'm so excited to see what it holds since you know how much I need "more fabric," haha. Maybe there will be some quilt patterns or ideas for using my stash.

That is all

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. ~ Isaiah 40:31, NLT

Yes, I'm here for "One Flower Wednesday." It's that day of the week when we all post our hexie flowers. I keep seeing great ideas for quilts with hexie flowers. There's a group working on a "Hexy MF Quilt-Along" that looks interesting. So right now I'm working on my landscape hexie quilt with the block of my little ranch house in it, I got all excited about the optical illusion hexie quilt, I started the 1/2 inch little flowers for whatever I'm planning with those little flowers, and now this. I think that I just like the hexie flowers so much that I get all excited every time I see another idea. Here I have a photo of the 1/2 inch petals I've made while in California, along with two more little flowers completed.

Then, yesterday I went to the wonderful "Quilters' Paradise" shop in Clovis, California. Yes, of course I bought some fat quarters and some little 1/2 cardboard template thingies for making more petals.

There are a couple of civil war fabrics, ok, maybe 4. The others just caught my eye. You know how easy that is to do with fabrics. I've ordered a fat quarter bundle from Connecting Threads of the "Grassland Prairie" like the one in my recent giveaway and I am now a member of a fat eighths club for Civil War Fabrics so I'll have fabrics waiting for me when I return to El Paso so I don't need to be buying more fabric.

That is all. (I need to be saying that about my fabric purchases too. I need to join that "Stash Report" group and be doing something about all the fabric I already have....

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Encouraging words of the day:But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. ~ Isaiah 40:31, NLT

I'm still in California on this beautiful Fathers' Day wishing all the fathers a wonderful, peaceful, joyous day. I have called my father in New Mexico and am spending the day with the father of my children and my son-in-law and his family. I haven't done much sewing. My daughter and I have spent our time visiting and shopping (no fabric). Today we'll have a cook-out and let my husband and SIL do the cooking... Somehow, that sounds wrong for Fathers' Day but they are willing so what can I do? Best wishes to all the fathers.

I've mentioned before that I was working on a Civil War project along with eleven other quilters. We were each assigned a mini quilt from "Civil War Legacies," by Carol Hopkins. The book has 15 mini quilts with very different looks. My quilt is called "Tommorow, Scarlett." We're also each making what we call a "Gratitude Block" from each of our different quilts. These will be sewn up into one quilt to be given to the person who donated the books for us to use and keep. My mini quilt calls for 5 1/2 inch blocks but the requested size for the "Gratitude Quilt" was 8 1/2. I made 3 practice blocks before I felt that I could "expertly" (smile) make the "Gratitude" block. Since I already had 3 blocks made, I decided to make my mini quilt into a lap quilt and here it is. It consists of 12 blocks made with a variety of Civil War fabrics.

I thoroughly enjoyed making my quilt from reproduction Civil War fabrics. I was already in love with CW fabrics from using them in "My Jane" blocks so I really enjoyed sewing up my CW quilt blocks. I'm sure this quilt would look lovely in any type of fabric you choose. Here's the back of my quilt, also in CW fabrics.

I quilted this with a crooked little vine stitch. You really can't see the little leaves but I stitched across each block and it actually looks pretty good.

That is all.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

But Lord, be merciful to us, for we have waited for you. Be our strong arm each day and our salvation in times of trouble. ~ Isaiah 33:2, NLT

We are in hot, hot California visiting our daughter and family. Everyone is saying we brought the hot, hot weather with us from Texas. Maybe that's what happened. Still, it is beautiful here and we're having a wonderful time visiting with our daughter, SIL, and grandson, not to mention our granddogs.

Last weekend I saw a beautiful GFG quilt top at an estate sale. They were asking $300 for it and it was worth every bit of that but completely out of my budget. It was made of 1/2 inch hexies and just gorgeous, just gorgeous enough to make me want to try sewing a half-inch hexie flower for One Flower Wednesday. I was able to work on my hexie flower while sitting in different airportre. Here it is alongside two hexie flowers I made for my "Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap" partner so you can see how tiny it is.

These are a couple of pink "My Jane" blocks I've completed. Both of them were easily paper-pieced. They are NOT crooked. That's the fault of the photographer (me).

I
blogged about it at
http://salliessampler.blogspot.com/2012/05/muchas-hilachas-fat-quarter-giveaway.html

Sallie also said in
post # 7, “I'd choose browns, then pink
& purples, then greens & blues.” Since Sallie’s first choice goes to Needled
Mom, she gets her second choice which is the pink and purple bundle.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Encouraging words of the day:So, my dear brothers
and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the
Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. ~ 1 Corinthians 16:13, NLT

This day is just
flying by.Here it is 3:30 pm on “One
Flower Wednesday”and I’m just now preparing my 200th blog post J.Well, yes, it’s been a long time coming.I first posted on October 4, 2010.And yes, time has flown.I had
not realized I had so many friends waiting for me in Blogland or I would have
started a blog long before that.Of
course, long before that, I didn’t even know what a blog was.Thanks to all of you, my dear blogging
friends for making my day, every day.I’ve
learned so much from you and have enjoyed spending time with you.Onward we go to many more visits.Thanks for being there (here).

And what have I been
so busy doing?Well, preparing items to
post today.As I said before, it is that
day when Karen fromJourney of a Quilterprovides a linky for“One
Flower Wednesdaywhere we can share our hexagon
flowers. And I, being one of the Queens of UFOs have started another
UFO.I saw this interesting photo of an
optical illusion made of hexagons so off I go to create something else.This will be my 3rd UFO involving
hexagons.Here’s my flower:

And here’s what I’m going to try to make. Yes, this is made
from hexagons.

I found this in an old, old 1992 copy of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine that my Mother has.

Speaking of hexaflowers, here are two I received from my
partner, Cathy, for for the"Inchy Hexagon Flower
Swap"where each month we swap hexie
flowers.Here are the lovely flowers I
received from Cathy from Canada. Thanks, Cathy.

Monday, June 4, 2012

My Jane L4 and L7Encouraging words of the day:For I can do
everything through Christ, who gives me strength. ~ Philippians 4:13, NLT

We were in New Mexico
over the weekend.It’s just as hot
(almost) there in the mountains as it is in El Paso.We’re supposed to be in the 100s all week,
sweat, sweat.Since we were gone, I
didn’t do much sewing.I did work on
crochet for a prayer shawl on the drive.Now it’s back to my Civil War Legacy quilt, hexie flower for Wednesday,
and back to “My Jane.”Here are a couple
of “My Jane” blocks that I’ve completed.L-4 looks better in real life than it does in the photo and is a keeper
even though the photo does it no justice.